The UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has announces that new projects totalling over £14 million have been launched to support efforts putting quantum to work.
This includes the announcement of 14 projects sharing £14m through Innovate UK’s Quantum Sensing Mission Primer awards, to support the development of next -generation sensors.
This ranges from a new type of portable eye scanner that could replace OCT machines currently relied on hospitals, to a new type of sensor that would let civil engineers detect buried structures without excavation works.
DSIT stated that quantum computers could help discover new medicines in a fraction of the time it takes today.
The projects of today will also support work on quantum sensors that could save civil engineers time and money.
This would be achieved by looking deep into buildings and buried structures in a non-intrusive way, as well as new medical scanners that could diagnose epilepsy with unprecedented effectiveness.
Science minister Lord Vallance said: “Quantum technologies are changing the world – from ultra-sensitive sensors to help diagnose diseases through to the potential of a new type of computer that can do things in seconds that would take today’s computers decades to compute.
“The UK already has considerable strengths and lots of exciting new companies have sprung up in the UK.
“The funding and agreements being announced today aim to support this exciting and important growth area right across the country.
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